Choosing managed hosting in cloud computing can be a great peace of mind. You can put your entire focus on developing your business without worrying about the IT infrastructure and your online presence. Yet at the same time, going for a poor quality managed hosting provider means drowning both your money and reputation. This results in a set of criteria or checklist that can help an entrepreneur to which he can compare before choosing hosting for his web presence.
Availability and Support
Your business has your own specific technical and infrastructure needs. And you have to make sure that your prospective hosting provider is there for you whenever you need him to handle them. Apart from that find how much time does resolution of a ticket takes, as even if the response is fast, it’s the resolution that matters. So grill the prospective company on these checkpoints.
- Availability
- Technical Guidance and Consultancy
- Response Time
- Resolution Time
Data Security:
Security is the most important issue when it comes to cloud computing. You have to make sure that your intended managed cloud hosting provider provides you a secure environment where your data is jailed behind a strong firewall protected from hacks, viruses and unauthorized access. Ask about the data backup strategy and question on the following aspects:
- Firewall and server security
- Access authentication
- SSL certificates and Data encryption
- Managed security updates and patches
- Support in PCI, HIPAA compliance
- Data Backup
Server Flexibility and Network:
Even if your data is all secure and protected, a slight network downtime will turn your prospective customer will land on your competitor and will result in ill name for your business. Similarly running a website means you can anytime face visitor hike so have to deeply interrogate on server scalability and ease of the process. Same goes for cloud failure and in case any disaster happens to your server locations so keep a special focus on these aspects when questioning on server and network:
- 100% network uptime
- Cloud failure strategy
- Cloud resizing and scalability
- Hardware replacement and new server spinning.
Track record and SLAs:
It’s easy to make commitments in order to get new customers but the track record explains how the things actually are. Read out testimonials and case studies and if possible even contact some of the customers. What if you wish to leave them? What if any of the SLA is breached? After all your whole presence is on the stake and depending on your hosting provider.
- Performance history
- No lock-in
- Refund policy
Questioning your prospective cloud hosting provider on these key aspects and explaining him your specific business needs will not just ensure you that you have a peace of mind in the long term but will also build a healthy relationship between you and your managed cloud hosting provider.
For more information, please visit The 6 Point Checklist For Choosing a Managed Hosting Provider.